Dog – Human Translator In Development

– A Dog to Human Translator is under development in Europe – the latest in a long line of attempts to enable humans to “talk with the animals” – or should that be “listen to the animals”?

Apparently humans have proven not adept enough at communicating with our four-legged friends for a serious group of scientists from the Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery. They have set out on a quest to develop a functional dog-human translator, when so many attempts beforehand have gone – well, to the dogs.

The device itself is called “No More Woof”, with the group in question stating, “No More Woof aims to develop a small gadget that uses the latest technology in micro computing and EEG to analyse animal thought patterns and spell them out in Human Language using a loudspeaker”.

The translated language at the moment is English, which raises a wry point in the minds of the team at the Daily Dog; what if the dog you’re trying to translate speaks another language? 🙂 For instance, the scientists in this case are from Northern Europe. Wouldn’t it therefore be better to develop a Dog-Swedish translator for their canine-subjects?

Dog-human translator – no translation needed

Even the scientists themselves doubt the ability of their device to offer a serious level of accuracy. They go on to say, “But we admit, we are optimistic dreamers, so even more importantly we want to raise AWARENESS about this area of science, and point others to the potentials!”

Despite setting expectations deliberately low, the Society has raised over A$20,000 from crowd-sourced websites at the time of writing – which says more about the donors than the developers we think!

Reinforcing this theme of low expectations, the scientists also say, “Among the patterns we have found are “I’m Tired”, “I’m excited” and possibly “I’m Hungry” and the clearly intense brain activity when a dog sees a new face, that we translate into: “Who ARE you?”. So far we have funded this project all by our own means, and we have DELIBERATELY set the amount of money we want to raise really low, not to get peoples hopes up. In the end, this will only be the start of future development!”

Here’s what pups4sale thinks: The very smart scientists who are the subject of this article should each:

1. Buy (or rescue) their own dog, and spend time with it every day.
2: Purchase one or more of the many books available on the subject of dog-human relations – and read up!
3: Watch lots of YouTube videos that show how to train and interact with dogs

To get the learned scientists started, we have even included a tutorial from our dogs “Ben” and “Kim” (pictured), who without the benefit of a high-tech, Dick Tracy gadget, are clearly communicating non-verbally (in English too!) exactly what they’re thinking. It is 12PM and the Tuckerbox freezer containing frozen bones has just been opened on schedule. The two dogs in question were seconds ago sleeping under a 4WD in the garage, some twenty metres away. Now, within moments of the hinges on the freezer lid squeaking open, we have our two friends at the screen door, their tails a blur of movement. We wonder, “Whatever could that mean?” Perhaps “I love you so much, now hand over the bones”?

Seriously folks – the scientists from the Nordic Society for Silly Gadgets should stop playing with their electronics, grab a frisbee and start playing with their dogs; they’d learn a lot more that way. 😉